Revelling in His goodness…

I’ve been in awe of God’s goodness over the last few weeks.
Not only is he good to us, he is abundantly good!
He doesn’t just give us one good thing in our life, he is constantly looking for opportunities to bless us.
What’s even more amazing is that even when circumstances seem incredibly bleak to us, he is still working within those circumstances to bring good out of them for us!

I thought I’d just share a few things from my life with you as examples of his goodness.

[Side note: This blog records the goings on of the initiative, Re(art)iculated. To find out more about Re(art)iculated, read this blog’s first post and go to the About page.]

Just before moving to the new house recently, the previous owner of the house had the house inspected for beetles, as required by the deed of sale contract. Yes, there really is such a test and it must be done when a property is sold, along with other tests such as the electrics. What we did not know is that, other than the two beetles usually specified on the contract, there are numerous other wood destroying beetles that are commonly found in houses. Even if these other beetles are present, the owner does not have to make sure they are removed or even disclose this information to the buyer, as the contract only specifies two other beetles.

Well, as you would have guessed, we had a thriving population of beetles living in the new house, and they were not the kind specified in the contract!

To remove these beetles, one must move EVERYTHING out of the house, have your neighbours move out for a few days(!) and get someone in to fumigate the property. Then, a few days after fumigation, the house must be tested to make sure the toxicity levels are safe before anyone can move back into the house.

Here’s the amazing part:

While we had no idea this was going on, the previous owner of the house arranged to move out of the house a week early, convinced her neighbours to move out for a few days and arranged for the house to be fumigated…all at her own cost! We only found out about this the day before the fumigation was set to take place, when the owner’s daughter, who was taking care of the admin side of the move, called to let us know what was going on. She said they felt that even though they were not legally obligated to do the fumigation, they had decided that morally they did not want to hand over the house in that state.

What made the situation even more amazing to me, was that she said she only knew that these beetles were such a mission to remove because her boss had just moved into a new house a week ago and then had to move everything out to have it fumigated after finding beetles that had not been specified on their contract! She did not want us to go through that! What a blessing from God!

So, the day after the toxicity levels were checked, we were able to move into the house on the day we had planned. All because of the kindness of the previous owners!

Not only did they take care of the beetle problem for us, but they even paid the security company for the first month of our occupation in the house!

Now, I ask you, in this day and age, how often do you hear of such undeserved kindness being measured out by complete strangers?

Other than these over-the-top gestures of generosity, we keep finding blessings in the house that we are able to enjoy (sky lights, nicely painted walls, a new looking geyser, roof tiles in good condition, curtains in the rooms facing the street, etc), although we did not even lift a finger to have these pleasures.

I was reading Nehemiah 9 this morning and I found I could identify with how God had blessed the Israelites in verse 25.

“They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they revelled in your great goodness.”

I want to take this opportunity to really revel in God’s goodness and I encourage you to identify how God is good to you in your life and to revel in it!

There is no way we deserve any good thing that has been given to us, they are all GIFTS from God.
Think about it, he does not have to give us gifts. So why does he? Because he can and he wants to!